Tl;dr I would really like to get a real persons help picking a plot line for my campaign. So, im running a 5e game for some friends of mine (inb4 you say 5e sucks, I agree, its what they wanted to play) They wanted to play strixhaven and since im retarded I thought I could write a better story than "5e voldemort" Ive run 4 sessions so far to get a feel for the group, theyre all relatively new but pretty light hearted. I learned that they would rather treat things like an episode of "Blue Mountain State" than something like LoTR. Theyre here to laugh and havent tried to treat anything seriously. (Its also their first non one shot) With that. One player requested that I begin to introduce the main plot finally and speed things along, relatively little has actually happened so far to be honest. Over the last few months ive written up some potential plot lines but ill take any one that fits and engages the group. Id like some help because im stalled and cant ask my Players, and asking myself has just yielded more options and no concrete solutions. So if youre willing to help read through and give me some thoughts id love other peoples help to actually reach a resolution. [Plots in following post]
I originally wanted more Persona-style school life, but my players want a stronger main quest. I’ve got a bunch of possible long-term plots, but none of them have locked in as the story yet.Trying to figure out which of these actually sounds strongest as a campaign spine:1. Combatives teacher coup One of the school’s combat instructors is an ooze teacher who’s brilliant, harsh, and dismissive of weak students. If they impress him, he invests in them. Long term, I like the idea of him becoming the main villain and taking over the school, turning it from a creative freeform academy into a militarized survival-of-the-fittest war machine. Strong personal villain, ideological conflict, and it lets the school itself change over time.2. Demon / wish-dragon corruption plot A student secretly helps a demon grow stronger by feeding it sacrifices, disappearances, or “accidents” during missions. The players slowly uncover a murder mystery and eventually fight the corrupted student. Alternate version: an evil wish-dragon spirit in its bones manipulates someone into doing worse and worse things to feed it.3. Ambitious prince student A prince from a northern kingdom comes to the school seeking a weapon or forbidden power to save his homeland from a stronger enemy nation. He starts sympathetic and charismatic, but becomes willing to kill or betray anyone necessary to get what he wants. More of a rival/tragic villain arc.4. Transferable sorcery A special form of magic gets passed from person to person and only grows stronger over time. Someone may be intentionally granting it to students, then killing them to reclaim it at a higher level. Could tie into faculty or old bloodlines.1/2
5. Simic scientist / Dumanophage A faculty scientist or hidden researcher is making strange creatures and experimenting on magical life. Best version so far is that he’s building the “Dumanophage,” an ultimate adaptive creature that can evolve to survive any situation. Good excuse for campus creatures acting wrong, and probably works best as either a major arc or lieutenant villain.6. Walter An old wizard concept I never used. wizard siphoning ambient magic from the land to become absurdly powerful7. Cult plot I’ve got a few possible cults:sun cult. Skull and bones society. Cult to the Goddess of Beauty. Nice fun deformed monsters. Eye cult focused on forbidden knowledgeCould be a main plot or a supporting faction.8. Dead titan resurrection A student or cult wants to resurrect a dead titan-level monster and either control it as a weapon or unleash it for apocalyptic reasonsOther backup options I could also just lift/adapt bigger published plots:Princes of the Apocalypse: I can instantly transition the campaign over and just finish with whats written Dungeon of the Mad Mage: with school scenes in betweenMain issue: I have a lot of campaign ideas, but no single one feels like the obvious winner yet. I’m trying to figure out which of these sounds strongest as the actual long-term story, and which ones are better as side arcs, midbosses, or school events instead.Honestly it feels like I don't even have a plot just some potential antagonists2/2
>>97768307>5e>strixhaven/school setting>light hearted>would rather treat things like an episode of "Blue Mountain State" than something like LoTRI hate everything about your game so I'm afraid I cant offer you any help
>>977683405e I get.But whats wrong it the players enjoying a light hearted game ? You hate fun anon ?
Don't bother with plotlines. Just see what your players want to do and go with it.
>>97768307>putting this much effort into prepping a gameRookie mistake.
>>97768307>(inb4 you say 5e sucks, I agree, its what they wanted to play)Get better friends or stop being bitch. Preferably both. These days you couldn't get me to run D&Dogshit even if the players were paying me every session. It's 2026, you have options that DON'T suck shit through a straw. Fucking hell, just type "Harry Potter TTRPG" into Google and the first result that's not a 5e conversion will probably be light-years better than 5e. That or just use GURPS. Either way you don't have to settle for DnDogslop.
>>97768307> Theyre here to laugh and havent tried to treat anything seriouslyI really need to make a "Harry Potter" TTRPG with blackjack, hookers, sex, drugs and duneon crawl for normies.> Id like some help because im stalled and cant ask my PlayersYou at least can ask them about "dark secrets" or motivations of their characters to prepare personal quests which could bleed in the main questline.> no single one feels like the obvious winner yetYou can start several and pick one as a main quest later.> Strong personal villain, ideological conflict, and it lets the school itself change over time.I'd say this one.
>>97768307>>97768317>>97768323>Overthinking shit this hard>While game didn't even start yet
>>97770620Damn, yall are a bunch of fags >trying is badClassic /tg/ advice
>>97768307Uhhhh. How is that castle even standing? What mad wizard-engineer designed and constructed this monstrosity?
>>97768307>>97768317>>97768323Even Persona usually has some looming conspiracy or more immediate crisis to deal with. That doesn't mean you need to jump immediately into a murder mystery either though.I would personally go with a mix of numbers 3, 4, 5 and 8. The prince is seeking to use some ancient titan as a weapon, but because the thing is so damaged, he needs the help of the Simic guy to help bio-engineer a new body for it. So he's helping to bankroll that guy and his experiments, with the occasional creatures getting loose. Possibly with some flesh/blood samples from the dead titan, which results in the weird forms of magical upgrades that occasionally passes from the experiments to students. Either unintentionally via a bite, or intentionally by the scientist or other students trying to make potions out of the monster materials.
>>97768307>introduce the main plot finally and speed things alongHe's right you should have been doing some main ploty things, but he's wrong about speeding it up. You play Strixhaven for the setting fluff, you want to milk that shit.
>>97768307>>97768317>>97768323It doesn't matter what you plan, your players will go off the rails always, plan light
>>97771144Wizards, they run this shit. Why make it feel retarded? Dont know. But it sure does look cool.But I dare say we need more impossible architecture.
>5e>gamelmao
>>97782394Why do you have a vendetta against D&D
>>97768340>>97768501>>97782394> Haha im so unique and edgy, you see *I* hate 5e, loserOP already stated they dont like 5eRest of the thread acknowledged 5e is normal crapWhen did you realize you were just useless retard anons ?
>>97779654OP here. Yea sure. I get that players will defy expectations, but I still want to have some sort of plot or story thats occurring. Like, which is better, having a plot and trying to fit it around the players fun. Or just 10 weeks of one shots and random disconnected crap.
>>97783376That's the secret, you throw disconnected crap at the players until they latch onto something, and then you build off of that. Give every random encounter a note or a trinket that suggests there's a greater threat behind it, and you're always able to retroactively make it part of a big conspiracy. Basically, just don't be afraid to add in a mystery you don't know the answer to yet. And don't be afraid to steal ideas from the players either. There have been times where their wild guesses are way better than what I actually had in mind for the answer to something.
>>97768307>plotthe plot is what they do. introduce a villain and a dungeon they have to get into, and go from there
>>97783535Hey im not being condescending when I ask this, but. How do I do that ? Like if I dont know whats happening do I leave a note with vague cryptic stuff? An amulet with a marking on it that the players cant roll to investigate ? Or box thats magically sealed until I find out what to put inside of it ?Because I cant give any clues related to anything I havent come up with, so if its a mystery for 4 sessions it has to be unable to be investigated
>>97784671>Because I cant give any clues related to anything I havent come up with,Yes, you can. It's very straightforward. >leave a note with vague cryptic stuff? It doesn't need to be that vague. It can be in a different language if you want the party to have to spend some effort to translate it, but the note itself can be pretty direct.Like if it's some bandits, it can just be a note signed with some initials or a codename that is talking about a new shipment, or someone to be on the lookout for, or really just anything that implies a larger scheme. >An amulet with a marking on it that the players cant roll to investigate ?Who says they can't roll to investigate? They might be able to figure out that the mark is a holy symbol of a certain god, or is an alchemical symbol related to a specific category of magic. In both cases, the party is able to identify what they're holding, but all that's done is open more questions. Who sent the bandits the letter? Why did they have an evil holy symbol? What could that alchemy be used for?In neither case does this suggest that you need to already have an answer. Maybe the players go around asking about that codename on the note to try and track the criminal contact of the bandits. Maybe they start looking around for cultists of that god. Maybe they try to find try to find the owner of the amulet.>so if it's a mystery for 4 sessionsTo be clear, when I say to add a mystery, I don't mean "put in a strange object and stonewall your players if they try to investigate". The whole idea here is to give the players a goal that they can pursue that you can build upon reactively based on their interest in it. If they seek out answers, you let them find answers.
>>97770952I see you have never played a game in your life.
>>97783376>I want This is how you get terrible referees. "I want this and that in MY game". This is a social hobby its not about you. You are playing a game in a group. It's nothing deeper than that. Let things happen as they happen naturally at the table. It will ve more fun for your players and you.
>>97785157This is terrible advice. GMs shouldnt want anything ? A GM should show up let the players suggest everything about everywhere they go and what happens? Awful. > GM the 5 of us each want to go to a different corner of the town and pursue random nonsensical bullshit > oh no what do you mean we each only got to play for 45 minutes and nothing happened ??The GM is also one of the players at the table, its a cooperative game why would you say one of them isnt allowed to putsue what they want when the others are.
>>97785189you're gonna be in for a shock when they go entirely off script and kill a major npc or something
>>97786017What is "Quantam Ogre" Oh no the players did the exact thing I expect them to do, act insane and out of hand, how ever will my story survive, Whats this, a different npc that can still support the narrative? Wild concept. Its still possible to have an idea for a story and let 5 psychopathic idiots run wild. Being a game master isnt about writing a book its about letting people explore your world and your story, any GM will realize they need to be flexible. But saying that the GM isnt allowed to have any say in that story is absolutely braindead.
>>97786193you type like a redditor and you sound like an actual retard, just do whatever you want
>>97770620To be fair, he said there had been four sessions so far.>>97768307Prep campaign worlds with interesting moving parts that are independent of the 'hero'. Writting long or even short term 'arcs' that assume the players will make certain actions or even that they will take part in it at all is a foolish errand that is unsustainable long term. This is particually true if you are playing dnd (even a less good edition of it). Once you have have even the minimum amount of ground work done for the campaign world. That would be>one or two fleshed out towns with named npc's>a place to adventure, usually a dungeon, with enough content for a couple of sessions>unkeyed towns outside of the beginning area that can be fleshed out if players show interest in travelling>a few rumours that reference your places to adventure and of the goods and magic items that it holdsThe last thing is the most important. Self motivated players. Wizards who want more spells, warlocks wanting to impress their patron, rogues that want to heist the royal treasury, clerics that wish to establish their own god as the chief of the local pantheon. Things that a first lvl character can only dream of doing. Naturally the xp, the gold looted, and the magic items acquired all make achieving these goals within reach. It is this last part that comes the least naturally to the modern game. At my own table I have frequently used the phrase "it's a player led game" and then I let them choose what to persue that session.>>97768307>be me>cast anti magic field in the place the castle is cinched>10,000 dead
